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WASHINGTON — Multiple tips to diplomats and law enforcement that might explain a whistleblower claim describing President Biden taking bribes have emerged — as the White House said Thursday it had “nothing” to say about the matter. House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) issued a subpoena Wednesday requiring the FBI to hand over an informant report that describes “an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions.” “I’m gonna have to refer you to the Justice Department on that,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told The...

The State Department has tossed merit out as a criterion for promotion within America’s diplomatic corps and replaced it with wokeness.With a war in Ukraine and challenges to U.S. leadership around the world, there is no shortage of possibilities for skilled diplomats to pursue America’s interests abroad. So it is particularly disturbing that the Biden administration has just tossed merit out as a criteria for promotion within America’s diplomatic corps and replaced it with wokeness. For decades, the State Department has chosen its diplomats through the Foreign Service Officer Test, a grueling gauntlet that begins with a challenging, objective, written...

An Obama fundraiser awarded a cushy European ambassadorship after bundling more than half a million dollars for his presidential campaign ran her U.S. embassy like a hostile dictator, spent government funds on booze and bullied staff.Here comes the good part. State Department leadership (that includes Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) knew all about it but took no action, presumably because the wealthy donor—a Seattle philanthropist named Cynthia Stroum—is untouchable. At least that’s what an internal State Department investigation seems to indicate. Made public this week, a scathing report of the probe says that during her year-long tenure as U.S....

The Czech Republic said on Monday Russia’s eviction of 20 Czech embassy employees in response to Prague’s expulsion of 18 Russian staff was a stronger than expected reaction and the government would consider further steps. Prague expelled the Russian diplomats on Saturday, saying it suspected that Russian intelligence had been involved in explosions at an ammunition depot in October and December 2014. Moscow has denied any of its agents were involved in the blast, which killed two people, branding the Czech stance a provocation. The row is the biggest between Prague and Moscow since the end of Soviet domination of...

The Russian diplomats are suspected of being intelligence operatives involved in an explosion at a Czech arms depot in 2014 which killed two people. Two Russians suspected of carrying out a nerve agent attack in the UK in 2018 are now also being linked to the blast. EU foreign ministers are due to discuss the accusations. Moscow has given the Czech diplomats a day to leave, while the Czech Republic has given the Russians 72 hours. Russia's foreign ministry called the Czech decision "unprecedented" and a "hostile act".

The Czech Republic says it will expel 18 Russian diplomats, alleging that Russian intelligence officers were involved in a local munitions depot blast in 2014. It comes a day after Moscow said it would expel 10 US diplomats. The move by Prague came amid a diplomatic standoff between Moscow and Washington that began midweek, after US President Joe Biden ordered 10 Russian diplomats out of the country over the Kremlin’s alleged interference in the 2020 presidential election and its claimed involvement in last year’s SolarWinds cyber-espionage case. More than 30 Russian individuals and organizations were also sanctioned, while American companies...

Leaked emails prove that, contrary to United Nations denials, UN human-rights officials did in fact give the names of Chinese dissidents to the communist regime in Beijing before those activists were set to testify in Geneva against the Communist Chinese Party’s abuses. In fact, it appears from the leaked documents that the practice of handing over names of Chinese dissidents to the dictatorship was viewed as a “usual practice” by all involved. The whistleblower told The Epoch Times that it continues to this day, despite UN denials. Chinese communist authorities used the names received from the UN to prevent the...

The U.S. secretly expelled two Chinese diplomats in September after entering a Virginia military base that houses the headquarters of SEAL Team 6, the New York Times reported Tuesday. The diplomats, along with their wives, were detained after the four drove through the outer perimeter of the Dam Neck Annex of Naval Air Station Oceana, south of Virginia Beach. They ignored orders from guards to turn back and were only stopped by fire trucks that were driven to block their path, according to the Times. One of the men is allegedly an intelligence operative with diplomatic cover. The U.S. has...

The US State Department has asked some 170 ambassadors to tender their resignations in a routine move before Barack Obama is inaugurated as president, an official said Thursday. Many career ambassadors, including Gene Cretz who was confirmed last month as the first US ambassador to Libya in 36 years, will probably be asked to stay in their posts, an official told reporters on condition of anonymity. "The message was something that is normally sent out (after every election every four years) by the State Department at the request of the White House," the State Department official said. "It's a normal...

A dozen House Democrats are calling for President Donald Trump’s ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, to resign in the wake of revelations about his key role in the unfolding Ukraine scandal. The calls for his ouster come as Sondland prepares to be deposed Tuesday by House committees as part of their impeachment inquiry into the president. The list includes one presidential candidate — Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio. Sondland, a Trump political appointee, has emerged as a central player in Trump’s bid to persuade Ukraine’s new government to commit publicly to investigate corruption and the president’s political opponents....

Following President Trump's controversial meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, Fox News senior strategist analyst Gen. Jack Keane argued it's imperative that the government see real evidence of denuclearization from the country before negotiating further.

Venezuela's government has backtracked on an order that gave U.S. Embassy personnel 72 hours to leave the country. The Foreign Affairs Ministry said that it is now negotiating the establishment of a U.S. Interests Office in Venezuela and will allow U.S. Embassy personnel to remain in the country while talks take place.

STATE DEPARTMENT — The U.S. State Department ordered nonessential personnel to leave Venezuela, but is not closing its embassy in Caracas, the department said Thursday. On Wednesday, Venezuela's disputed president Nicolas Maduro said he was ending diplomatic relations with the United States in response to President Donald Trump's announcement that the U.S. was officially recognizing National Assembly President Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim leader. Maduro ordered U.S. diplomats to leave within 72 hours. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, however, said Maduro no longer has the authority to do so. The U.S. State department said it was evacuating non-emergency staff...

Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro lacks “the legal authority” to expel American diplomats, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday. “The United States does not recognize the Maduro regime as the government of Venezuela,” Pompeo warned in a statement. “Accordingly the United States does not consider former president Nicolas Maduro to have the legal authority to break diplomatic relations with the United States or to declare our diplomats persona non grata.” Maduro ordered the departure of American officials earlier Wednesday after President Trump announced his support for a leading opposition figure who has claimed the constitutional authority to supplant the socialist...

The United States stands with interim President Juan Guaido, the democratically elected National Assembly, and the people of Venezuela as they peacefully restore constitutional order to their country. We stand ready to support interim President Guaido as he establishes a transitional government and carries out his constitutional duties as interim President, including determining the status of diplomatic representatives in the United States and other countries. We welcome interim President Guaido’s directive to all diplomatic missions in Venezuela that Venezuela intends to maintain diplomatic relations with all countries. The United States maintains diplomatic relations with Venezuela and will conduct our relations...

Hostile: When U.S. diplomatic staff at the American Embassy in Havana, Cuba, and in China began to fall ill earlier in December 2016, investigators were stumped as to why. More than three dozen U.S. diplomats and family members living in Cuba and China reported confounding brain disorders like dizziness, headaches, and blurry vision.

The Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office has issued arrest warrants against two Turkish diplomats. The diplomats linked to the Turkish domestic intelligence service MIT are accused of planning to kidnap a businessman. The Swiss federal prosecutor's office has issued arrest warrants against Turkish diplomats Haci Mehmet Gani and Hakan Kamil Yerge. The diplomats are accused of having planned to kidnap a businessman in the late summer of 2016. The Zurich businessman with Turkish roots is said to be a married family man in his mid-fifties. The businessman was advised by the diplomats because he belonged to the movement of the Islamic...

Russia is to expel 23 British diplomats amid tensions over the nerve agent attack on a former spy and his daughter in the UK. The Russian foreign ministry said staff from the UK's Moscow embassy would be expelled within a week. It also said it would close the British Council in Russia, which promotes cultural ties between the nations, and the British Consulate in St. Petersburg. The move comes in response to Britain's decision to expel 23 Russian diplomats.........

WASHINGTON — Of all the State Department employees who might have been vulnerable in the staff reductions that Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson has initiated as he reshapes the department, the one person who seemed least likely to be a target was the chief of security, Bill A. Miller. Republicans pilloried Hillary Clinton for what they claimed was her inadequate attention to security as secretary of state in the months before the deadly 2012 attacks in Benghazi, Libya. Congress even passed legislation mandating that the department’s top security official have unrestricted access to the secretary of state. But in...

The ranks of top US diplomats are being depleted at a “dizzying” speed, the head of America’s diplomatic trade union has warned. Since January, the number of “two-star” minister counselors has dropped by 42% and “three-star” career ministers by 14%, according to Barbara Stephenson, president of the American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) and former ambassador to Panama. At the highest ranks of the State Department, the number of career ambassadors has dropped from five to two, after the retirement of three top diplomats. “These numbers are hard to square with the stated agenda of making State and the Foreign Service...